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Post by hardlec on Jan 15, 2018 11:31:11 GMT
As the Martians attempt to take over the Midwest, they find increasing resistance. Every small town is fortified. Sometimes it is best to bypass the town.
There are still isolated areas where there is a single building or a few buildings together in isolation.
A farmstead will be a cluster of a house, at least one barn, various sheds and likely a windmill. This cluster of buildings may or may not be fortified with some trenches.
Almost all Midwestern farms had a root cellar or a storm cellar. A small underground room where food was stored and where the family could find shelter during storms.
Barns come in many shapes and purposes. Some provided shelter for livestock, storage for hay, acted as workshops, or combinations. It was common to have a barn alone in a field.
It was also common to find a church as an isolated building. The church would be located where several families could reach it by foot on Sunday, and quite likely it served as a school Monday through Friday.
Inns and roadhouses were not very common.
What other buildings would be likely as the isolated focal point of a battle?
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Post by greenbeanie on Jan 15, 2018 14:04:26 GMT
A saloon. Most were out where wives could not see them and recognize the family mule tied up in front.
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Post by David N.Tanner 07011959 on Jan 15, 2018 15:56:30 GMT
Grain elevators, the large concrete ones were just starting to appear.
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Post by mikedski on Jan 16, 2018 2:19:15 GMT
One room school house.
Whistle stop station.
When you say 'Midwest', are you thinking "Great Plains"?
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Post by hardlec on Jan 16, 2018 13:23:04 GMT
I am thinking great plains, but basically anything north of the Mason-Dixon line and two states to either side of the Mississippi River.
I have searched mightily for grain elevators.
What about Wells Fargo way stations?
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Post by greenbeanie on Jan 16, 2018 14:06:06 GMT
You could try scratch building them using paper towel rolls. Put eight rolls, two across and four down and slap a cut down box on top and you have a concrete grain elevator once you paint it up. I did one for Stalingrad some years ago and it worked well.
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Post by mikedski on Jan 16, 2018 18:31:31 GMT
I am thinking great plains, but basically anything north of the Mason-Dixon line and two states to either side of the Mississippi River. I have searched mightily for grain elevators. What about Wells Fargo way stations? Plenty of model train HO scale concrete or wood crib style elevators. |
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Post by terrance on Jan 17, 2018 4:57:55 GMT
One room school house. Whistle stop station. When you say 'Midwest', are you thinking "Great Plains"? Completely off topic but mikedski’s comment put me in mind of how regions in the US think of the surrounding areas. I grew up in Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan. We said we lived in the Midwest. The east was the east coast as far inland as Pennsylvania and the area west of the Mississippi River was the Great Plains. The west started around the continental divide. Now I live in Idaho, which is west of the continental divide and east of the cascade mountains that run down Washington and Oregon states. For the people who grew up here the east is everything east of the Rocky Mountains. If you mention the Great Plains or Midwest they look at you like you have green skin and tentacles for hair.  |
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Post by hardlec on Jan 17, 2018 13:09:25 GMT
I grew up near Chicago, spent several years in Missouri near St. Louis, and also a decade or so in Milwaukee, Wi. Missouri considered itself to be in the South, although Illinois actually sticks down almost as far south. Wisconsin and Minnesota consider themselves "the North" Iowa, Kansas Nebraska all consider themselves the Midwest. Texas thinks of itself as another world.
Geographically, Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, Illinois and Indiana are "The Great Plains" created by the glaciers of the great ice age, but regions are free to call themselves whatever.
Of course, The Mississippi River is the dominant geographic feature in the area. Even hundreds of miles away. Stream flow into creeks flow into rivers that flow into Old Man River.
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Post by madmorgan on Jan 18, 2018 19:18:29 GMT
Same geography problems with my home state, Kentucky. Often listed as the Southeast (SEC basketball), but it really isn't all that southern in culture and geography. As a geography major in college (and a minor in Military Science), I often wondered at the way our country 'zoned' various areas. Imagine if rivers were more the determining factor in drawing our zones. Names like the Missouri River Basin, the Miss. River Basin, etc. I wander afield here, but many of the Native American tribes identified with rivers as the rivers provided food, water, and transportation routes.
As far as on topic - a railroad refueling station. Very common in our AQ time frame; this usual had a water tower, a coal tower and a small shack with telegraph and telephone lines. If the line was double tracked, the station's operator also worked the switches. Larger versions included a side track for railroad repairs and holding freight boxcars for a different train. Needless to say, this would have a load of options for gaming and include some armored train scenarios as well. Please see some of the excellent scenarios by others of this forum revolving around trains and stations.
See the excellent Paper Terrain line for loads of items to model your "railroads" with. PS - Scott, how about an Armored Train for that line??
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Post by hardlec on Jan 19, 2018 12:51:04 GMT
Railroad coal station: yes.
Armored Train: if you build it, I will buy it.
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Post by madmorgan on Jan 24, 2018 20:50:51 GMT
There are some out there - Peter Pig has a 15mm (1/100) one that's nice, but of coarse small next to our 1/110 figures. However, if you are using some of the various 'Religious' orders or other TO&Es I've purposed made from an all Peter Pig figures. I'll post one here in a short while.
Hagen - Miniatures from Germany makes two very nice scaled armored trains that fit well into AQMF - they are the proper scale and come with a single track base. I also bought several extra loose pieces of tracks so I can run them on their base as a road crossing point and have tracks leading on and off the board. Do include the " - " (dash) in your search as its important to finding them.
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Post by boxholder on Jan 24, 2018 21:58:04 GMT
A general store is often encountered
A small post office, sometimes inside the general store
A bar with or without diner
Farm equipment and supply store
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